Smelting Out Alloys?

[WI Smoke]

My Freind says you can smelt and skim your alloyed lead enough to make it it "Soft Lead" again. Say turning wheelweight into good round ball material. I don't think you can get enough out to make much of a difference.

Who is correct?
WI Smoke

 

[jtmattison]

You are correct. You have to heat it to extremely high temp to seperate the metals.
I don't think anyone has the means to do so in their own shop.

HD

 

[MSW]

i agree with dawg- if you're about to get into resmelting just to get 'pure' lead, you're heading into 'more trouble than it's worth' territory. fairly clean lead should be readily available for about fifty cents a pound.

msw

 

[Don B]

I keep hearing (in this forum) about reclaimed lead being "readily available", but none of the dozen or so commercial metal recyclers in my area that I've contacted are willing to sell to me. They either are not interested in dealing with a small-volume customer, or claim to not sell lead to anyone, although they will buy it. I fear I will be reduced to buying on ebay for much more than $0.50/lb.

Woe is me,
Don B

 

[jtmattison]

I keep hearing (in this forum) about reclaimed lead being "readily available", but none of the dozen or so commercial metal recyclers in my area that I've contacted are willing to sell to me. They either are not interested in dealing with a small-volume customer, or claim to not sell lead to anyone, although they will buy it. I fear I will be reduced to buying on ebay for much more than $0.50/lb.

Woe is me,
Don B

You have to know where to look. Several good options for lead have been discussed here.

Plumbers lead
Telephone cable sheath
Dental X-Ray
X-ray room walls
Forklift weights
Sailboat keels

HD

 

[lightsky]

jsut stick to pure lead or as good as you can get.
you'll never get pure lead from wheel weights at
home,if you do the trouble won't be worth it.
if you look around ,you shouldn't have much trouble finding it,up here if you tell em what
you want it for ,they'll give it to you.
have a great day :winking:

 

[Don B]

HD and Capteph,

I've followed the many discussions on the board about where to get scrap lead. The scrap yards I've called won't sell to me. And my friends don't include anyone with access to cable sheathing, plumber's lead, or sailboat keels before it gets to the scrap yard.

Don

 

[George Holton]

Go to the range and mine the backstop or bank. look for guys tearing down old houses,talk to plumbers and remodelers, Go to ML shows and ask about, find an old timer who has been squirreling lead away for years. network.

 

[Blizzard of '93]

I don't suppose you are one of them 'old timers that has been squirelling lead away for years'?? :haha:

 

[Va.Manuf.06]

DonB, have you tried your local plumbing supply stores? Not contractors but supply stores. Locally (Shenandoah Valley of Virginia) they sell 5 pound ingots for $13.32 - that's $2.66/pound. Expensive but it will get you by until you find a scrap source...

 

[Jac Spring]

That's a good price really - breaks down to 7 cents per 50 cal ball or 8.5 cents per 54 cal ball.

 

[sparsons]

HD I called both hospitals here in town and ask them if I could have some of their lead from the X-room. They hung up on me--used your name as a reference. :rotf: :rotf: Sorry but when I read that I had visions of one of our members all dressed up in mountain dress using their hunting knife on the wall. :haha:

 

[kayja]

you can buy round balls and conicals ready made
cheaper than you can buy lead plus S&H on Ebay.
[url] http://www.auctionarms.com[/url]/